Too Selfish
by Terapsina
Summary: They've caught the Dark One. And while everyone's in the other room arguing over what to do with her, Hook has some delusions Emma's more than happy to disabuse him of. One being that she loves him, which is simply not true, and so she explains why in rather great detail.


Disclaimer: All the characters and the world belongs to all the people who own the rights to Once Upon A Time. And that's not me.

AN: I was rather curios about how this Dark One!Emma and Hook confrontation might go, so I decided to write it. And just FYI this is entirely SQ and not even a little bit CS so... you know.

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* **Too Selfish** *  
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The Dark One lays tussled like the damn Thanksgiving turkey on the bed, straining against the blue fairies silly little bindings. She seethes, more at the indignity of it than any real worry that they'll hold her captive. No, already she feels the magical hold fraying. Feels the microscopic silk threads of power being pulled apart one after another as they dissolve into nothing with every beat of her darkened heart.

And once she's free they truly will regret this attempt. They should have left her be, it's not like she was going around trading in babies like her predecessor, or filling up the family mausoleum with a glass heart collection like some _other_ people she knows once did.

Hell, even her body count can be measured on one hand, which she's pretty sure is a smaller number than even her saintly parents can brag about.

After long moments of furiously trying to escape, she stills into an icy sort of calm, finally allowing her eyes to roam around her old room taking in the details. It's exactly as she remembers it, not one picture frame out of place. Even her hair comb is still lying fallen on the floor where she dropped it the morning before she became what she is now, when she was far too sleepy to pick it up and decided that at 7 am caffeine would fucking come first.

It's like a tomb to the Emma that was. And by the small layer of dust covering every surface, she can guess that her parents haven't been able to come in here until today. Not until they deposited their daughter on the bed all tied up and harmless, just like they like her, to go downstairs and argue over what to do now. ' _How sweet'_ , her lips curl in distaste.

There's movement that she catches at the corner of her eye coming from the doorway, and she finally turns her head sideways towards him. She'd known he was watching her already of course, had felt his eyes on her, but until now she was more than happy to ignore him.

She already knows what he's thinking about doing anyway. The stupid misguided fool is so predictable it's rather boring really.

' _I mean it didn't work that last time. But obviously if he just tries and tries and tries again he'll get a different result next time.'_

One of these days she'll have to introduce him to Einstein's definition of insanity.

She looks on as he finally opens the door all the way and steps into the room. His face is pulled in a determined sort of scowl and she smiles a dark little smile at being right. Oh well, if he wants to play it this way, she's more than happy to disabuse him of his silly, romantic notions.

Still, anger wells in her stomach at the fact he's waited until she can't really resist. Smart of him of course, she'd have ripped out more than just his heart if he'd tried what he has in mind now while she was in full control of her body and magic, but she'll still make him pay for it dearly.

Because even while showing _some_ sense he's still not smart enough to leave well enough alone. Then again brains were never Hook's strong suit.

"It won't work." Emma singsongs with an innocent sort of lilt to her voice that would have sounded off even while she was still the town's precious Savior. From the Dark One the effect is almost sinister.

"It will." He protests, always so unable to take her denials. It's hilarious really.

"Oh, but it won't. And do you know why? Because she _lied._ " She almost delights in the truths she's about to inflict on him, the truths she should have thrown at him a long time ago, would have if she hadn't been so afraid of facing them herself. But now? Now nothing frightens her, and the freedom of it is delicious. In a different time Emma might have felt bad about hurting him, but the Emma that exists now can barely even summon the will to feel gleeful at his pain. He's just not… important enough, and _that_ almost does make her pity him. "Emma's last words to you were a lie. She knew it too. It's why she waited until they'd have no consequences. Waited until they wouldn't mean she'd actually have to own up to them."

Hook's face shows nothing, but Emma doesn't miss how he's not looking into her eyes anymore.

"The Dark One is the liar here. Emma was never that."

Now Emma does laugh, the sound echoing across the space between them loud and incredulous. Oh, but Hook knew her not even a little, did he? All Emma had done was lie, lie and pretend and act like everything around her was exactly what she wanted out of life. Most of those lies were directed at herself even. She'd have thought even the pirate had known that about his hopeless little obsession. She certainly never really fooled herself.

Or Henry for that matter. Those looks her son had sometimes sent her certainly spoke loudly of how blatant one of his mothers truly was to his eyes.

But going back to Hook's idiocy.

"Your kiss won't break anything Killian. I'd have to love you for that. And believe me, I don't. As Emma didn't." She can't help but sound entertained at the thought that he might really think otherwise.

She sees him glower before he suddenly moves across the room marching toward her determined to prove her wrong. He grabs her face in a hold that no one would ever mistake for loving and goes for his target. The kiss he plants on her is almost rabid, forgoes passion entirely in the face of some dark kind of possession. If he's trying to shove the Dark One out this way she has to call into question even the few mental faculties she had attributed him. Still, she lets him try for a moment, laughing into his mouth as he becomes even more desperate until she ends it abruptly by biting into his lower lip until she tastes blood.

He pulls back with a curse and sends at her a look out of those wounded eyes of his. It only makes her laugh harder.

After a moment of hilarity she lets the air grow silent between them again before she theatrically bends over the side of the bed and spits out his blood on the floor by his feet. Then she grins up at him with some of the blood probably still coloring her teeth red.

Tilting her head a bit, she considers him as the perfect idea strikes her. Something that will cost her nothing, but will torture him far more than she could even had her magic been available to her right now,

"You are right about one thing however. A kiss _might_ do it. Not yours though."

Here he flinches once more, his eyes caught again by hers and the usual denial all ready to go. But she sees it get stuck in his throat and lets out another low chuckle. Maybe an old dog can learn new tricks after all.

And this was beginning to be a bit of fun really.

"Don't you want to ask me whose then?" She taunts and his lips clamp together. It's a tell she wasn't quite expecting from him and her eyebrows rise in her first real show of surprise. "Oh dear, but you already _know_ , don't you? That's interesting."

"So maybe you do have something to worry about then after all Dark One." He bites back, but there's hollowness to his tone that belies his bravado.

She just shakes her head. Amused.

"No, I don't think I do. Because you're not gonna say anything, are you Killian? After all you want Emma back, but you want her back for _yourself_. And if you tell them, if you tell... _her_ ," he flinches and she grins "then you won't actually get her at all. I was waiting for the barest hint of reciprocation, if _she_ had so much as flirted with the _idea,_ I would have dumped you in half a heartbeat. No, you're far too selfish to tell them anything. You're still hoping there's another way to bring _your_ Emma back. There was never such of course, but oh you're still trying to delude yourself even now."

"You're wrong." He protests vehemently, but she can see how weak the words are to him now, his illusion is a house of cards and she knows just which one to pull out to make the tower topple.

And after that he won't even have the cold comfort of lying to himself about how he's a 'changed man' or how much he's began to turn into a better person.

"Regina!" She calls out, her voice rising to be heard from the other room, where the Charmings, Blue and even Mr. Gold for some godforsaken reason are trying to come to a decision about Emma's life. She's not really worried, she knows there's one person there she trusts to stand in the way of anything too stupid they all come up with. "Regina! Come in here for one moment okay?"

Hook freezes in place, as if he was still hoping for them to have been talking about someone else. She lets out a short breathy chuckle, as if there could ever have been anyone else.

The voices from the living room cut off abruptly, like they'd all been actually forgetting that the subject of their conversation was just a room away. And for a moment Emma herself wonders which of her current jailors will be the one to actually join them. Hook will remain silent whatever's the case of course, but the scene would play so much better if it's the queen in question that comes.

It is. Regina enters Emma's bedroom regal as ever, her shoulders and back straight, her face cool and collected and her head with not a hair out of place. God this woman was beautiful. Is it any wonder really that it's all come to this?

Regina's lips do curl up in distaste once she notices the pirate's presence and her eyes flicker from Emma to him in suspicion until they cut to Hook's bloody lip and then jump back to what must be Emma's own bruised lips.

Then her, through decades perfected, mask breaks under a sudden onslaught of rage.

In moments she has Hook against the wall, cracking the mirror with the force of the push once his back hits the surface of the glass. Invisible hands choke him, limiting his access to air to what might be barely anything.

"You tried to kiss her against her will?" her voice is barely a whisper but it still sends a shiver of pleasure over Emma's skin. By the way Hook is still clawing fruitlessly against his own throat she doubts it has the same affect on him.

This is really lucky for the pirate of course, because if he ever decided to move his stalkery affections towards her son's other mother Emma would have to seriously reconsider letting him live.

Not that he'll live that long anyway if Regina doesn't stop choking him soon. And not that she'd exactly miss him, but the point of giving Regina her happy ending and stabbing that dagger into the inky strands of darkness was sort of so that Regina _wouldn't_ have to lose all the progress she'd achieved by fighting on the side of the light. Murder would probably put a bit of a cramp in that.

She sighs rolling her eyes. Things she does for this woman sometimes.

"You might want to ease up a bit Regina." Emma mutters a bit halfheartedly. "I think he wanted to say something to you. Isn't that right Hook?"

Hook lets out a sound that might have been her name.

For a moment it seems like Regina would choose to ignore her, but then the hand she's been extending in air slackens and she drops it to her side as Hook slides coughing to the floor.

Still Emma sees her fingers twitching like she's only barely managing not to attack Hook anew.

She catches his eyes, they're angry now and his jaw is clenched tight as if just containing a string of curses he'd like to unleash on them both. Emma smiles at him in challenge.

He can end all this now.

He just has to open his mouth and tell Regina that Emma loved her. Just tell her that if Regina kissed her they might not need to worry about the Dark One anymore. No one else would die by Emma's hands. Storybrooke would be safe again, for however the hell long that would last this time.

All he'd have to do was let go of whatever last illusion he still holds about Emma's feelings for him. Admit to himself that he never really held her heart in the first place, and that Regina does.

All he has to do is be the man he keeps telling everyone that he is now.

But as she'd already known, Killian Jones is far too selfish for that. He says nothing, just picks himself up from the floor and storms out of the room with Emma's laughter trailing after him.

Leaving her alone with Regina in Emma's old bedroom, and with Emma tied up on the bed. She'd had fantasies like this. Granted more than half of them starred them in swapped roles, but she can work with this too.

"Oh well. It seems he's changed his mind. Now that you're here though…"


End file.
